A boat standing on its stern serves as a welcoming sign to the Sponge Park test site. Photo by Trudy Whitman.

By Trudy Whitman

Gowanus Canal pollution. It’s not only about the decades and decades of industrial toxins that poured directly into the waterway. As anyone who lives near the notorious channel can attest, human waste also fouls the canal after heavy precipitation. And what can’t be seen are the ground-level contaminants, such as heavy metals, that flow down the streets into the canal during downpours and heavy snow melt. When sewer mechanisms cannot handle the additional flow, this gunk goes straight into the canal as well.

After more than 50 years, the Heights Veterinary Hospital on Hicks Street in Brooklyn Heights has closed. The veterinary hospital has been a fixture of Brooklyn Heights since Dr. Bernard Wasserman bought and renovated the building in 1957. Eagle photo by Henrik Krogius.

BROOKLYN — Fireworks over Prospect Park are a New Year’s Eve tradition, and Brooklynites will once again be able to ring in the new year with a choice of two fireworks displays — the glorious display at Grand Army Plaza and a more distant midnight show over the Statue of Liberty.

Grand Army Plaza’s celebration kicks off around 11 p.m. with entertainment and hot refreshments; fireworks go up from midnight to 12:15 a.m. at the Long Meadow. The best viewing locations are within Grand Army Plaza, along West Drive in Prospect Park, and along Prospect Park West between Grand Army Plaza and Ninth Street.

Borough President Marty Markowitz is sponsoring the celebration.

The Statue of Liberty midnight fireworks, orchestrated by the Grucci family, can be seen from any location along the Brooklyn waterfront with a view of the sky over the statue, including parts of Red Hook, the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Brooklyn Bridge Park and the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian walkway.

If the location seems particularly well suited for a party cruise, there are several — including one by the firework’s sponsor, Circle Line Sightseeing Yachts.

A student at St. Francis College examines documents at the Brooklyn Historical Society’s library.

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — In the dark, wood-paneled library of the Brooklyn Historical Society, students in Eric Platt’s history class pulled on pristine white gloves and began to pore over delicate black-and-white photos laid out on long tables.

Some of the photographs — dating back to around 1900 — are grainy family portraits taken on the Coney Island boardwalk and printed on iron sheets. Later photos, taken in the 1980s in the same location, show graffiti-scarred, dilapidated buildings.

“How does this reflect the time when it was taken?” Platt, an assistant professor of history, recently asked a group of students as he pointed to one of the more current photos. “Is Coney Island in better shape today?”

A partial collapse took place at a low-rise commercial building at 185 Columbia St. around 10:30 a.m. Friday morning. A small apartment building next door at 183 Columbia St., which also contains a live poultry market, was temporarily evacuated, but no firefighters or civilians were injured, according to an FDNY spokesman. The building is on the corner of DeGraw Street, which has been closed for more than a year between Columbia and Hicks streets due to construction work on the Gowanus Canal Flushing Tunnel. The closed-off street is also home to a colony of stray cats, who are no doubt attracted by the presence of the chicken market.